Research conducted by a student-led advocacy group at St. Edward's University has revealed that the City of Austin is in the throes of food insecurity, according to a report from Austin ABC affiliate KVUE.
The group, which is called The Civics Lab, discovered that 33 food deserts pockmark the state capital, the station reported.
Austin City Council has enacted a pair of initiatives to bring awareness to food access barriers in the community, to which KVUE reported about 15% of Austinites encounter.
According to the station, the figure for last year surpassed that of the national average, which was 10.9%.
The initiatives city leaders embarked on included a proclamation that designated Thursday (April 21) as Austin Food Insecurity Awareness Day and a resolution for a partnership with public transit entities to help residents access places where they can access healthy food, per KVUE.
"We are a city of tremendous wealth and opportunity, but we are also a city with residents facing poverty and inequality. Families struggling to find affordable housing, access to quality health care and food are challenges that require all of us to solve together," Mayor Steve Adler, said, the station reported. "These two initiatives can help us unite as a community, recognize the challenges we must solve and put our resources toward solving them."
According to The Civics Lab's research, the communities that experience food insecurity are also highly susceptible to heart disease, cancer and diabetes, KVUE reported.
The group additionally found that low-income and communities of color lack the ways and means to eat healthy, per the station.
"The fact that nearly all the U.S. census tracts classified as food deserts are located east of I-35 demonstrates how this issue disproportionately impacts low-income and minority neighborhoods," Councilman Sabino "Pio" Renteria, who introduced the Austin Food Insecurity Awareness Day proclamation, told KVUE.
The Civics Lab told the station that the American Heart Association Community Assessment determined the Central Texas region to have rates that exceed state and national averages regardless of ethnicity for inaccessibility to healthy food.
According to KVUE, the U.S. Department of Agriculture late last year placed Texas on its list of the most food-insecure states in the country.